Animal Advocacy

Having teenage daughters is old news.  Eight years now we've endured the ups and downs of this phase.  The teenage boy is a completely different animal. And I use the word animal purposely. Let's see - rooster, ape, monster, stubborn bull, goat, buck - all nouns that come to mind when observing my oldest son. Now, make no mistake, I am an animal lover.  Always have been.  I love that guy with fully a seventh of my heart.  Ok, more than that, but I do have seven here in the house to love.

This weekend, with the blessing of unbelievably gorgeous weather, we wandered outside to putter.  Does anyone know what puttering is?  I come from a long line of putterers.  Professional putterers, if you will.  So after puttering for a while, it was clear that puttering was not going to exhaust the ____________  's  (insert animal type here) energy, so father/senior ___________  (insert same animal name here, but picture a fully grown version, bulky and handsome, smart and entertaining, able and accomplished - unlike the junior version) decided to "take the junior down."

This is a game repeated often here.  It always goes the same.  The results are identical.  Yet it goes on and on.

Junior:  "You're weak."
Senior:  "Oh, yeah?"  chuckle chuckle
Junior:  "Yeah!"  grunt puff
Senior:  "So you think you can beat me?"  just chillin'
Junior:  "Uh, YEAH, no Question!!"  beats chest
Senior:  "Bring it."  yawning
Junior:  "Argh, grunt, umph..." flailing wildly, exerting
Senior:  "Are you even trying?" still yawning and stretching
Junior:  "AAAAAAiiii"  war cry, rebel yell
Senior:  "Hmmm, did a fly land on me?"  quite passive really
Junior:  "RRRRRGGGGG"  actually struggling
Senior:  "MMMmmm, well, you're getting stronger I think...."  reads paper off to side

So this day, more of the same.  But football.  Oh football.  If only I had known when I brought home the Tebow book that football would become a theme of manhood around here.  I brought the book home as a biography about a godly guy, homeschooled, and obviously with a work ethic to be imitated.  Not sure if boy/man caught any of that stuff, but he sure locked onto the football stuff.

Senior got up, brushed himself off, the clear victor.  Did junior give up?  Of course not.  We wouldn't want him to!  (Well, some days we would.)  And the really neat thing is that that man of mine told me that that boy of ours really is getting stronger.  He's actually wondering how much longer he will be able to take him down. It might be a sad day when junior does finally whoop senior. But just another phase, another season.  Kind of like when my daughter made a better pie than me.  We deal with it, and are actually really proud of them.